Bible

Scripture

August 30, 2016 by Patricia Leave a Comment

The Essentials: Scripture
Sycamore Creek Church
August 21, 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

How ’bout them Tigers? Well, OK. Maybe they’re not doing as well as you might hope, but here’s a question for you: when it comes to the Tigers or any baseball game, what is essential? What do you absolutely have to have to play baseball? You need a ball, a bat, players, and a field. If you’ve got those four essentials you’ve got baseball. There are a lot of great things about baseball that aren’t essential. Dugouts. Uniforms. Lights. Scoreboard. None of these things are essential.

When it comes to our beliefs, there are likewise some things that are essential and other things that, while important, may not be so essential. We’re in a series called The Essentials and we’re exploring five essentials of Christian belief: Christ, Faith, Grace, Scripture, and Glory.

Once a year we do a “belief series.” We take four or five weeks to look at our beliefs or theology or doctrine. Why do beliefs matter? Beliefs matter because what you believe contributes significantly to how you live. If you believe in an angry God, you’ll live like God is out to get you. If you believe in an uninvolved and disinterested God, you’ll live like God doesn’t care what you do. If you believe in a loving God, you’ll live like you’re on God’s mission in this world.

This series was conceived by a conference that I went to here in Lansing back in 2013. It was called “Sola13” (check it out at www.sola13.com). It was put on by some of the more conservative and reformed churches in the Lansing area. Many big speakers came to Lansing to talk about the Christian faith over several days. People from all over the nation came here to hear them. I wasn’t able to go to every day of the series, but I did catch some of it. It got me thinking that I’d like to explore the same issues but from a slightly different perspective. Maybe a more “moderate” perspective.

The series was called “Sola” because it was built on five “Solas” from the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th century. “Sola” is Latin for “only.” Here are the five Solas:

(Sola) Christ Alone
(Sola) Faith Alone
(Sola) Grace Alone
(Sola) Scripture Alone
(Sola) God’s Glory Alone

Each of these Solas are a protest against certain beliefs or misunderstandings about the Catholic Church. Christ alone, not priests or sacraments (you don’t need priests or sacraments as a mediator to God). Grace alone, not merit (you don’t deserve and aren’t entitled to anything, especially from God). Faith alone, not works (you didn’t earn anything, especially your salvation). Scripture alone, not tradition (the Bible is enough without all the “traditions” of the Catholic Church). And lastly, God’s glory alone, not glory to the church or saints (you don’t worship saints, the church, etc.).

In this series I want to propose a “middle way.” I’d like to suggest that we understand “Sola” or “alone” as “Solus” or “primary.” Thus the five Solas become five primary beliefs or essentials.

Primacy of Christ
Primacy of Grace
Primacy of Faith
Primacy of Scripture
Primacy of Glory

Scripture
Today we’re going to look at Sola Scripture or the Primacy of Scripture. Of all the “solas” Scripture alone is the one I wrestle with the most. What does it mean? Only scripture and not science? Only scripture and no other books? Only scripture by whose interpretation? Only scripture and check your brain at the door? Only scripture in what translation?

Growing up I was taught that scripture was inerrant. What I understood that to mean was that the Bible is never wrong. Well, as I’ve grown up and studied I’ve realized that those who believe in inerrancy have a more nuanced view than my childhood and teenage brain could fully understand. One theologian defines it this way:

The view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.
~Paul D Feinberg (Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)

The verse that is usually used to defend this view is from Paul’s letter to his protégé, Timothy:

All scripture [is] inspired by God and [is] useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
~2 Timothy 3:16 NRSV

I put the word “is” in brackets because when I began to study Greek, the original language Paul was writing in, I learned that the word “is” is implied. It’s not really there. So you can always ask, where should the “is” go? There is another place to put the “is” in this verse. One translation gives us a different way of understanding what Paul is saying:

Every scripture inspired of God [is] also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.
~2 Timothy 3:16 ASV

Put the “is” in a slightly different place and the meaning changes, doesn’t it? So what do we believe about scripture? Perhaps the most succinct place is found in our Articles of Religion:

The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any [person] that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.
~Article V of The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church (Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church)

Notice it’s Article V. Four other things come before it: God, Jesus, Jesus’ resurrection, and the Holy Spirit. In contrast, The Baptist Faith and Message puts their belief about scripture in the number one spot. What should come first? Belief in God or belief in the Bible? Well, they’re very closely tied, but if I had to pick one, I’d go with belief in God first.

My View on Scripture has been in flux over the past ten years or so. If I were to rank the Solas I’d put Sola Scripture in the 5^th place. That doesn’t mean I don’t deeply value scripture. I read it every morning. I read it multiple times a day. I’ve spent countless hours studying scripture. I trust it. And yet over the years I’ve found the whole thing pretty complicated. Amidst the complications, there are five things I’ve found that are helpful to know about the Bible. So in honor of its fifth-place rank, here are five things to know about the Bible:

1) Know the Weight
All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal. There was a time in my life where I would have stopped listening to someone who told me this. But then I read the Bible myself and I came across Jesus having this argument with the religious leaders of his day:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.
~Jesus (Matthew 23:23 NRSV)

Here’s the question: how do you determine “weight”? What is Jesus’ answer? Jesus says the weightiest things fall under the categories of justice, mercy and faith. So while he doesn’t neglect or throw out other things, he gives preference to these three essentials in the Bible. Does your own reading of the Bible and living of life focus primarily on justice, mercy, and faith? If you read the Bible like Jesus does, it will.

2) Know your Geometry
Yes, geometry. Or sorta. While studying John Wesley, the co-founder of the Methodist movement, I came across the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral.” A quadrilateral is a four-sided object. The four sides of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral are scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.

There’s an online series of videos called Chuck Knows Church. I think Chuck can probably explain the Wesleyan Quadrilateral in a more engaging and entertaining way that I can. So watch it:

If we go back to the baseball metaphor, I like to think of the primacy of scripture as the playing field. Tradition is the coaches and their theories of how to play the game on the field. Reason is the umpires and the rules of the game. And experience is like the stats of individual players and even teams. Coaches come and go. Umpires come and go. Stats come and go. But the game is always played on the field. The game always begins and ends on the field. It’s not played in the stands or outside the stadium. Christian belief and practice always begins and ends on the playing field of scripture.

3) Know Literature
I know. I’m stretching your brain right now. We were in geometry class just a moment ago and now we’re talking literature? Hang with me. Different kinds of books come with different kinds of expectations. Same thing is true about most of life. If you go to a baseball game expecting football, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If you go to the new Harry Potter movie expecting a documentary, you’ll be really confused. If you go to Jackie’s Diner expecting a BBQ place, you’ll miss all the great diner food they serve there. If you come to any particular book of the Bible with the wrong set of expectations, you’re going to get really confused.

The Bible is not one book. It is sixty-six books written by dozens of authors over thousands of years. It’s more like a library of books. Each of those books is a different genre or kind of literature. Each genre comes with its own set of expectations. Do you come to the Old Testament expecting a science book, or history or something else? I like to think of a book like Genesis as “family history.” It’s the stories that a family tells that define who the family is. For example, one of the stories my family always tells is about the time my grandma put a piece of pie in front of my grandpa. She went to scoop out some ice cream and when she turned back to his plate, the pie was gone! Now did it happen exactly like that? Probably not. But did he eat it fast? Yes. That’s the whole point. And it tells you something about my family and its history. Genesis is like that: family history. Leviticus, on the other hand, is ancient government law code. Very different than family history. The book of Psalms is like reading someone’s prayer journal. The book of Proverbs is wisdom. Wisdom is different than promise. Wisdom is what happens most of the time.

When it comes to the New Testament, are we reading journalistic reporting, apologetic debates, or something else? I think it’s helpful to think of the gospels, the books that tell the story of Jesus’ life, as painted portraits. Not photographic portraits, but painted portraits. Like a good painter, every gospel author has taken some artistic liberties with painting a portrait of Jesus. They all get the basics the same, but they each paint a slightly different picture. The “epistles” are like reading someone else’s mail. They were written by one person to another person in a particular context. Our context may be similar or it may be different. The book of Revelation is the one that people always want me to talk about. We did a whole series on it some time ago, but I think the book of Revelation is probably best understood as political cartoons. If you look at a contemporary political cartoon and you see an elephant and a donkey, you know that they’re talking about the Democratic and Republican parties. When you see the colors of red, white, and blue you know they’re talking about the USA. Revelation has all kinds of similar symbols that ancient people understood but we no longer understand. Look at a political cartoon from a hundred years ago and you have no idea what all the symbols mean. Multiple that by 2000 years and you’ve got the book of Revelation.

When you come to a particular book in the Bible you have to adjust your expectations depending on what kind of literature you’re reading.

4) Know the BIG Picture
Details matter less than the BIG picture. That’s the fourth thing to know about the Bible. The early Christian leaders called this the “analogy of faith.” Read the hard, difficult, or unclear scripture in light of the clear scripture. All interpretations must fit with the big picture/narrative of the Bible and Christian belief. Paul, the first missionary of the church and author of many of the “epistle” letters in the Bible, wrote to the church at Corinth saying:

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
~Paul (1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NRSV)

Paul is giving us the big picture, the analogy of faith. A couple of hundred years later St. Augustine, a church leader said something similar:

Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought.
~St. Augustine (4th & 5th Century Church Leader)

Fit the details within the BIG picture. If you’re not sure about something, look at it from the perspective of the BIG picture. God created. We rebelled. God loved us. God loved us in many ways including a unique relationship with the ancient Hebrew people. God show us his love most fully in Jesus. Jesus taught us and showed us what love looks like. Jesus was executed but love won when he was raised from the dead. Jesus created a community of people to follow his way of love. That’s the BIG picture. Interpret everything else in the Bible in light of that BIG picture.

5) Know who to Trust
All of us come to reading the Bible with a basic disposition: trust or suspicion. If you always only read the Bible with suspicion, you’re going to miss something that you can only get when you approach the Bible with trust. The Bible is like a trusted mentor. It’s not that you always agree with your mentor. But you do trust a mentor. And when a mentor asks you to do something you’re not sure about, you’re willing to give it a try because you trust your mentor. I think about when I learned to ski. The ski instructor said that our instinct when we’re learning to ski is to lean back on the skis. But when you do this you lose control really quickly. You have to go against your instinct and lean forward, down the hill, to have the most control. When I finally began to really trust my ski instructor, I began to really figure out how to make those beautiful S-curves on the slopes. When you approach the Bible with trust, you try things you wouldn’t like or that don’t always make sense and you find that there’s a way you’re blessed in doing so. Psalm 1 says it this way:

Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
~Psalm 1:1-2 NRSV

When you have a trusted mentor you stay away from things that the mentor says aren’t good for you. You trust their warning. I had a friend who came over one night to try my sushi that I had just learned to make in a sushi-making class. He had never had sushi or wasabi. Wasabi is the spicy green paste usually served with sushi. He tried a little and really liked it. He thought, “A little is good, so a lot must be great.” He took a spoonful of wasabi and put it on top of a sushi. As all of us told him this was not a good idea, he ignored us and popped it in his mouth. Within seconds he jumped up from the table, ran to the bathroom, and proceeded to throw up his entire dinner. He didn’t trust us when we told him that a spoonful of wasabi wasn’t going to be good for him. When you trust what the Bible tells you, you find that you don’t have to eat the wasabi to know that a spoonful isn’t going to be good. The mentor is trustworthy. The mentor is trustworthy because God speaks through scripture. Does God still speak today through scripture? Absolutely. Will you give it try? Dedicate ten or fifteen minutes each day to reading the Bible or reading a devotional book about the Bible. You’ll find there a trustworthy mentor.

Here’s a prayer that I use from time to time to help my spirit open up to what God is going to say to me through Scripture:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible, scripture

The Wise Way to Live

October 1, 2015 by Patricia Leave a Comment

The Wise Way To Live
Getting Ready For What On Earth Am I Here For?*
Sycamore Creek Church
September 27, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Today I’m doing something I’ve never done before. I’m teaching on how to get ready for the series that begins next week: What on Earth Am I Here For? You could call it a prequel to the next series. How can you get the most out of the next series? That’s what I want to explore today. Because next week we begin our annual fall church-wide campaign. We’ll be exploring the question: what is your calling? We’ll ask why you exist and what place you have in this world. Plan to discover your life’s calling in the next six weeks. Because beginning next week we’ve got a six-week sermon that has six features for six different learning styles. You have the opportunity to:

1. Join one of many small groups (there are groups of men, women, parents, couples, anyone, teenagers, young adults, and on and on and on);
2. Discuss 6 life lessons to discover your calling;
3. Memorize 6 Bible verses to guide you – rest of life;
4. Hear 6 weekend messages that set up each group;
5. Read or listen to a daily chapter of book;
6. Practice some activities with your group.

This series is for the entire family, including your kids and your teens. Talk about this stuff with your family around the dinner table. Have your kids invite their friends. Speaking of kids inviting friends, one of the parents in our church emailed me a picture of the three Invest Invite Cards that her third grade daughter filled out to invite her friends. Yes, she filled out three cards. That’s nine people she is planning on investing in and inviting to our Open House Party next week. I’ve talked with several people about their Investing and Inviting and many are having some amazing (even miraculous success). One person wrote down a name on their card a couple of weeks ago and that person showed up in the second service! One new person to our church who has never been very invitational decided to write down some co-workers names and then pray. He was a little nervous about the whole thing. But one day he found himself naturally saying to his co-worker that he was missing his great church while he was working on Sunday. His co-worker then asked, “What makes your church great?” Turns out this co-worker is considering looking for a church! That was easy. Pray and God answers. How is your investing and inviting going? God likes to answer these kinds of prayers, because God wants every person to be part of a community of faith. You may be able to be a child of God without a church, but without a church family you’re an orphan of the king.

So let’s dive into what I want to talk about today. Let’s talk about choosing the wise way of life by getting ready for this upcoming series. If God offered to give you ONE thing, what would you ask for? Some might ask for something awesome, like an awesome unicorn, and that would be pretty awesome, but after a while the awesome unicorn becomes not so awesome anymore. There is a moment in the Bible when God offers someone anything he can think of. This person is King Solomon and Solomon chooses wisdom. Above all else he wants wisdom to lead and govern his people. Why would Solomon ask for wisdom rather than anything else? The book in the Bible dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom is called Proverbs. Here’s why wisdom is so valuable:

“Wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing else you could ever want is as valuable.”
~Proverbs. 8:11 NCV

The highest quality ruby is ten times more valuable than a top diamond. One gram of gold goes for $30-50, but one gram of a precious ruby is worth about $50,000! As another proverb says:

“Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do.”
~Proverbs 4:7 TEV

In today’s message I want to cover two things:

Why wisdom should be the #1 goal of your life.
How to get wisdom for your life.

#1 Goal = Wisdom
I told you that the book of Proverbs is the wisdom book of the Bible. It collects the wisdom of Solomon along with many other ancient wisdom sources. This is wisdom that has been tried and tested over and over and over for thousands and thousands of years. Now let me clear about what wisdom is and what it is not. Wisdom is how things generally work most of the time. Wisdom is not a promise. But wisdom is a safe bet with your life. It’s not just a safe bet, it’s the well-worn experience of thousands of years of people living life. Over & over God stresses why you need wisdom:

“If you become wise, you’ll be the one to benefit. But if you scorn wisdom, you’ll be the one to suffer.”
~Proverbs. 9:12 NLT

Did you catch that wisdom brings benefits. What kind of benefits. I could go on and on about this but here are some of the benefits you’ll get from learning to base your life on wisdom:

“Wisdom is good for the soul. Get wisdom and you’ll have a bright future.”
~Proverbs 24:14 TEV

“Those who get wisdom do themselves a favor, and those who love learning will succeed.”
~Proverbs 19:8 NCV

“Treasure wisdom, and it will make you great; hold on to it, and it will bring you honor.”
~Proverbs 4:8 NCV

“Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life.”
~Proverbs 9:11 NLT

“Wise people have great power.”
~Proverbs 24:5 NCV

“Wise people will gain an honorable reputation.”
~Proverbs 3:35 TEV

Wise people’s lives get better and better.”
~Proverbs 15:24 NCV

“Wisdom offers you long life, as well as wealth and honor. It can make your life pleasant and lead you safely through it. Those who become wise are happy; wisdom will give them life.”
~Proverbs 3:16-18 TEV

“Nothing will stand in your way if you walk wisely, and you will not stumble when you run.”
~Proverbs 4:12 TEV

Wisdom = Good for the Soul ~ Bright Future ~ Favor ~ Success ~ Greatness ~ Honor ~ More Time ~ Power ~ Reputation ~ Improvement ~ Long Life ~ Wealth ~ Honor ~ Pleasant Life ~ Safety ~ Happiness ~ Overcoming ~ Perseverance.

Do you see how important wisdom is to your life? Do you understand why you should want wisdom more than anything else? Do you realize why learning wisdom is worth the next six weeks? Like everything else, living wisely is a choice. Living foolishly comes naturally, living wisely must be learned.

“Learn to be wise, and develop good judgment.”
~Proverbs 4:5 NLT

So how do you learn to be wise? I want to give you five keys to wisdom.

1. Listen to God’s Word Every Day

“Start with God. The first step in learning is bowing down to God.”
~Proverbs 1:7 (Message)

If you want wisdom you have to start with the one who created wisdom: God. Wisdom doesn’t come from any other source. The purity of the wisdom depends entirely on how close it is to the source.

“It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding”
~Proverbs 2:6 TEV

Get wisdom from God. Not from TV. Not from the internet. Not from Youtube or Facebook, not that any of those things are bad, but you don’t believe everything you hear on the internet. Wisdom comes first from God.

“A wise person is hungry for truth, while the fool feeds on trash.”
~Proverbs 15:14 NLT

You know the old saying: junk in junk out. If you eat junk food, guess what you’ll do to your body. You’ll junk it. If you eat healthy food, guess what you’ll get from your body? Health. What will you put into your mind, body, soul, spirit in the next six weeks?

During the next forty-ish days or six weeks, develop the habit of a daily time with God. This doesn’t have to be hours of time set aside. If you’ve never done this, then set aside five or ten minutes. To begin read or listen to What on Earth Am I Here For? If you pick up the book you’ll see that there are QR codes at the beginning of each chapter. You can scan those codes with your cell phone (download a QR code scanner from the App Store) and you’ll get a unique video for each chapter of the book from the author, Rick Warren.

I bet many of you are saying or thinking to yourself, “I don’t have time for a daily time with God.” Let me ask you a question: Do you have time for TV, Facebook, or Youtube? I bet you have time for the things you prioritize. One small way you can find some time is to listen to each chapter each day while you’re driving to work or on the bus. Knock out two birds with one stone.

I began finding daily time with God when I was a teenager. Someone, I don’t remember who but it was probably my mom, gave me a Student Bible. It had a Bible reading plan in it and notes that spoke to specific issues I was dealing with as a teenager. Teens, don’t think you’re off the hook for this. Begin now finding daily time with God.

If you want wisdom, the first key is to listen to God’s word every day.

2. Enlist Friends Who Challenge Me

We always grow in community. You can’t grow healthy by yourself! We need each other. The quality of your life will be determined by those you choose to keep closest to you:

“Bad company corrupts good character.”
~1 Corinthians 15:33

If you hang out with pygmy goats, you’re likely to become a pygmy goat. You need friends who pull you up, not friends who pull you down.

“Spend time with the wise and you will become wise, but the friends of fools will suffer.”
~Proverbs 13:20

Once a week, for next 6 weeks I want you to meet with a few friends. Not forever! Just a few friends for a few weeks. I bet some of you are thinking again, “I’m too busy for a weekly small group.” Let me ask you a question: would you have more time if you made fewer mistakes? Would you like to make fewer mistakes?

“Fools think they need no advice, but the wise listen to others.”
~Proverbs 12:15 NLT

You may make fewer mistakes in life and end up having more time if you take some time to seek wisdom with a group of friends. Are you getting any spiritual input from friends? That’s why you need a group. Have you signed up for a small group yet?

The second key to wisdom is enlisting friends who challenge you.

3. Ask Questions & Accept Correction

“People’s thoughts can be like a deep well,
but someone with understanding can find the wisdom there.
~Proverbs 20:5

Sycamore Creek Church is a church that seeks to be Curious, Creative, and Compassionate. When we say we’re a curious church, we’re not meaning that we’re odd (well, maybe those who follow Jesus are a little odd in a good wise kind of way), but we mean that your questions are welcome. If you want wisdom learn to ask good smart questions from people who have wisdom. If you want to know about cats, ask an “ailurophile” (pronounced “aye-lur-a-file”). An ailurophile is a “lover of cats”. But if you want to know about wisdom in life, you ask a philosopher, which means “lover of wisdom.” King Solomon was a philosopher. He loved wisdom.

One of my coaches provided me one time with a great set of questions he has collected over the years. I’d be happy to share those questions with you if you email me (tomarthur@sycamorecreekchurch.org). Good questions open up our minds to new possibilities in life:

“Intelligent people are always open to new ideas. In fact, they look for them.”
~Proverbs 18:15 NLT

One key to asking good questions is listening! I rarely learn new things while I am talking. I remain open to new things when I ask good questions and listen for good answers. Larry King says that “if the host of an interview show is doing half the talking something has gone terribly wrong.” This is true of groups: The leader should talk the LEAST! The leaders of our small groups are learners too. They’re not all expert “philosophers.” They’re regular people just like you and me. We are all ignorant in our own ways. You can learn from anyone if you take the time to ask good questions and listen for the wisdom in their answers.

Here’s one more reason to ask good questions and keep learning:

“If you stop learning, you will forget what you already know.”
~Proverbs 19:27 CEV

Wisdom isn’t static. It’s like a muscle. You use it or you lose it. The third key to gaining wisdom is to ask questions and accept correction.

4. Remember & Reinforce What I Learn

“Listen, and I’ll teach you what the wise have said. Study their teachings, and you will be glad if you remember them and can quote them.”
~Proverbs 22:17-18 TEV

Wisdom doesn’t go in one ear and out the other. For it to be true wisdom it has to stick. You’ve got to have a system for remembering and reinforcing what you learn. One key system for remembering and reinforcing is to memorize.

Why memorize anything in the age of information (and smart phones)! Memorization is fast becoming an ancient practice. But research has shown that we gain a lot by memorizing. Memorizing improves your brain in at least eight ways:

Keeps you remembering
Brain exercise = better mental health
Increases “neural plasticity” = remember more
Improves brain processing speed
Frees up brain power
Improves concentration
Increases creativity
Delays cognitive decline in elderly

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2012/07/23/in-praise-of-memorization-10-proven-brain-benefits/

Memorization means that you’ve always got access to that information and wisdom. I got on a train one time going to Chicago for the day with my three-year-old and left my phone in my car. I didn’t even have my wife’s phone number memorized to call her and tell her what was up. I had to call the church office and ask my secretary for my wife’s phone number! When you haven’t memorized something that you are relying on your cell phone to remember for you, when your cell phone is no longer accessible, then your knowledge and wisdom is no longer accessible. But your memory is always accessible.

Memorization gets wisdom into our hearts. You’ve heard the phrase, “Learn it BY HEART.” Memorization gets it into our hearts in a way that no other method can (http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-we-should-memorize).

“Don’t lose sight of my words. Let them penetrate deep within your heart, for they bring life and radiant health to anyone who discovers their meaning”
~Proverbs 4:21-22 NLT

You want to seek God with all your heart, then get wisdom into your heart by taking time to memorize what you learn. Each week in this series we’ll have a memorization verse. You can pick up a book marker with all the verses on it. Memorize each verse each week and get it into your heart.

The fourth key to wisdom is remembering and reinforcing what you’ve learned.

5. Now DO it!

We’ve come to the final key of wisdom: DO IT! Don’t just talk about it! DO it. Jesus’ brother, James wrote about wisdom this way:

“Don’t deceive yourselves by just listening to the Word; instead, put it into practice. If you listen to the word, but don’t put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves …but once they walk away, they forget what they look like. But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and you don’t forget it, but you put it into practice—you will be blessed by God in what you do!”
~James 1:22-25 TEV

You can grow old without ever growing up! If you know it in your head but don’t do anything about it, then you don’t really know it. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge. Wisdom is a choice to do something about what you know. Wisdom is a choice. Growth is a choice to do something about what you know. Growth is a choice. Wisdom and growth are both a choice to do something. Are you going to DO anything about what we just talked about? If not, you just wasted your time. You came here and you listened to me and you will stay the same. You’ll get older without growing up. I’m not saying I’ve got it all together, but even if you disagree with what I’ve said, and you do nothing about it, then you’re no better off than when you first showed up!

God doesn’t bless good intentions. God blesses wise choices. God says, “It’s your move. It’s your choice.” Will you do the wise thing? Sign up for a small group. Find daily time with God. Learn to ask good questions. Remember and reinforce what you learn by memorizing the weekly Bible passages. Go do it. Go get your FREE book right now.

Prayer
God, we confess that too often we’ve chosen the easy and foolish way of not making any change. Give us the strength to choose the wise way today. Let your wisdom find a place in our hearts so that we not only hear it but we act on it. May this be so in Jesus’ name. Amen.

*This message was adapted from a sermon originally preached by Rick Warren

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible, purpose, Small Groups, wisdom

Curious

January 6, 2015 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Hello: My Name Is Sycamore Creek Church – Curious
Sycamore Creek Church
January 4/5, 2014
Tom Arthur

Happy New Year, Friends!

I bet you ask lots of questions about God, faith, and life. I know I do. I’ve always been full of questions about the faith. I grew up in a Christian home, and prayed for Jesus to come into my heart when I was five years old. It was a real commitment, but the commitment of a five-year-old needs to grow as that five-year-old grows. As I got into high school I began asking lots of questions about this whole faith and Jesus thing.

When I was in high school I set up a meeting with my pastor to ask him a question that came up during my time of reading the Bible. Why did Jesus tell people not to say who he was after he had healed them? That was the beginning of my formal search for answers to my questions. I remember that meeting with my pastor, whose name happened to be Tommy, a very good meeting. I wasn’t chastised for asking questions about the Bible. He even seemed encouraged that I was asking questions about the Bible. There even seemed to be a pretty good answer to that particular question. Either Jesus was still figuring out what kind “messiah” he would be or he was concerned that his healings would lead to crowds that wanted him to be a “king.”

When I got into college, some of those questions led me to leave the Christian faith for a while. What I found out when I left Christianity was that there wasn’t any more certainty on the side of unbelief. The only difference was that unbelief seemed to offer no ultimate hope or meaning, whereas belief offered ultimate meaning and hope. Eventually I came back to put my trust in Jesus, in spite of the uncertainty I felt. But the questions remained. Here are some of the questions I’ve asked over the years:

If you have to hear about Jesus to go to heaven, what happens to the Native Americans?
Why should I trust the Bible? Are there any errors in the Bible?
Why are there two different stories of creation in the Bible?
Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?
If Cain and Able were the first children of Adam and Eve, then who did Cain marry? His sister?
Where do the dinosaurs fit in?
How can evolution and faith work together? Can they?
What am I supposed to do with all these seemingly arcane rules in the Old Testament?
Why does God tell the Israelites to wipe out everyone, including all the children and even the animals?
Is it OK to swear?
If sex outside marriage is wrong, what exactly is sex? Does oral sex count?
What does God think about people with same sex attraction?
What if the Greek for “faith in Jesus” can also be translated “faith(fullness) of Jesus” as I learned in my seminary Greek classes? What does that mean for what I believe that we are not saved by “faith in Jesus” but by the “faithfulness of Jesus?”

So while I’ve always been very curious about questions of faith, God, and life, I’ve mostly committed to following Jesus except for that short time in college. My curiosity and my commitment have always made me just a little bit weird.

I’m not the only one asking questions. I asked my friends on Facebook what questions they’ve asked about faith, God, and life. Here are some of their questions:

If faith is a gift from God (Eph 2:8), then does God not give some that gift so they can be saved? Does God draw everyone? (John 6:44) What is a person’s part in faith?
How does God care about a little speck of dust like me when He created the universe? Why is it so hard to obtain faith when it’s so free to have it?
How do I make the church relevant in my life?
Why does it seem like most people who don’t believe in God, choose to come to God when they are having difficulty in life?

Here’s some good news for all the question askers at Sycamore Creek Church and in our community. Sycamore Creek Church is curious, creative, and compassionate. We’re starting a three-week series today called “Hello: My Name Is Sycamore Creek Church.” We’re going to spend three-weeks introducing ourselves to the community and remembering what hasn’t changed, even if we have changed our Sunday morning venue. While we are no longer a “Church in a School” (are we a “Church in a Church”?) we are still curious, creative, and compassionate. But what does each of those things mean when applied to a church?

Here’s a question to begin the whole thing: where did “Curious, Creative, Compassionate” come from? Good question. When we started our Church in a Diner, we were looking for a tag line to describe the kind of community that we were going to be. It had to be faithful to who we were and it had to be catchy enough to grab the attention of someone who didn’t really see church as something they were interested in. And it had to be a quick way to describe to them what we were doing, an “elevator speech” if you will. I believe it was Amberlee McCloud and I who came up with these three words. Once we had them down on paper, we realized that they didn’t just describe Church in a Diner but these three words captured and described all of Sycamore Creek Church in a way that was faithful to who we have always been and who we wanted to continue to be. So today let’s look at the first of these three words: Curious.

Merriam-Webster has two definitions of curious:

cu·ri·ous adjective \?kyu?r-?-?s\
1. having a desire to learn or know more about something or someone
2. strange, unusual, or unexpected
~Merriam-Webster

The first definition is obvious. Sycamore Creek Church welcomes all your questions about God. You don’t have to leave your questions at the door. As you heard, I’ve had my fair share of questions too. Jesus seems to be open to having questions and not being so certain about everything. When a father brings his son to Jesus and asks if he can heal him, Jesus responds that he can heal him if he believes. The father honestly presents his uncertainty and questions to Jesus. We read:

The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
~Mark 9:24 NLT

So what does Jesus do? I’d guess that Jesus would say, “Well, go get your questions figured out and when you can believe without any questions, then come back and see me, and we’ll see what I can do.” But that’s not what he does. He heals the father’s boy. He meets him where he’s at, questions and all.

In the book of Proverbs, the wisdom book of the Bible we read:

It is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them.
~Proverbs 25:2 NLT

God likes mysteries and gives us things to hunt for. God gives us things to ask questions about so that we can discover answers. This is a theme that various church leaders have been exploring for hundreds of years. St. Anselm was a church leader during the 12^th century and his motto was “faith seeking understanding.” He wrote:

“I long to understand in some degree your [God’s] truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe–that unless I believed, I should not understand.”
~St. Anselm (12^th Century Church Leader)

Anselm believed that sometimes you have to believe first before you can understand. He also believed that it was just fine to have faith but then to seek answers to questions you’ve got. Apparently this meant that faith usually comes before answers. Faith leads to curiosity.

So the first definition of “curiosity” is seeking understanding. But there’s a second less familiar definition of curiosity. Curiosity also means unusual or peculiar. When we decide to make a commitment to follow Jesus even though we’ve still got questions, we become somewhat peculiar. This isn’t really new. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest followers said:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
~1 Peter 2:9 AKJV

Following Jesus even when we’ve got questions, even when we’re uncertain makes us weird. In our day and age, we value certainty. We value having everything figured out before we make commitments. But if you wait to get everything figured out before you make any commitment, you’ll never make any commitments. Making a commitment to follow Jesus can make you kind of odd, unusual, peculiar, or curious.

1. Be curious about what the Bible/God says about a topic
So I’d like to offer you three practices of curiosity. First, be curious about what the Bible says about a topic. When Paul showed up in Berea and taught there we are told that the Bereans were a curious bunch:

And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.
~Acts 17:11 NLT

You see, the Bereans were curious if what Paul was teaching was in line with the Bible. So they dove into the Bible to see what it said. Now there are some things that are important to understand about being curious about the Bible. First, the Bible is sometimes very complex. Even the Bible says this about itself sometimes. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest followers and the author of two books in the Bible said that Paul, the first missionary of the church and author of several books of the Bible, was sometimes hard to understand:

This [teaching] is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture.
~1 Peter 3:15-16 NLT

If Peter found Paul complex to understand, then don’t get too down on yourself when you read the Bible and don’t always understand it!

Second, the Bible can sometimes seem to contradict itself, although this is rarely at a fundamental level. Take the four books that tell the story of Jesus’ life: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All four tell the story with different details and even seem to tell it in a different order. But they all agree on some very basic things: Jesus lived, he died, and was raised from the dead!

Third, interpret the unclear sections through the clear sections of the Bible. If you’re not sure what to think about something in the Bible, then let the things you do know about the Bible guide your curiosity. If you still don’t know what to do, always err toward love. St. Augustine, a 4^th and 5^th century church leader said:

Fourth, reading a little sporadically is better than reading none at all. Sometimes we really trip ourselves up on not reading every day or as consistently as we would like. It may be helpful to know that I’m just now getting into day 300 of a yearly Bible. Sounds pretty good right? What if I told you I began in January of 2012? I’ve taken over two years to read a “yearly” Bible. Yeah. Be patient with yourself. Don’t beat yourself up. Reading consistently is great. Reading a little every once in a while is better than none at all. Four websites that I’ve found helpful for reading the Bible include:

www.pray-as-you-go.org
www.youversion.com
www.biblegateway.com
www.blueletterbible.org.

2. Be curious about what others say about it (especially those who disagree)
So you’re practicing curiosity by searching for what the Bible says about a topic. A second way to practice curiosity is to be curious what others say about a topic. It can be especially helpful to seek out differing perspectives on the issue. Who disagrees with you? Why do they disagree? How do they see the issue and the answer? What questions are they asking?

Seek out what others are saying by participating in a faith community. Listen to a sermon each week. Participate live or download the sermon if you missed it, or read it on my blog. Or seek out others in a small group. This week we begin GroupLINK for our spring semester’s small groups. There are over 20 small groups that you can join to begin to build spiritual friendships with people who can indulge your curiosity. Or seek out what others say about a topic through books or videos or audio online. I continue to wrestle with the question of homosexuality. I’ve read about ten books on the topic that cover the whole spectrum. I’m being curious by seeking out the perspective of other people, some who might not agree with me. Warning: reading a lot of books can leave you with a lot more question than you began. Whenever I’m reading several books about a topic I’m reminded of this wisdom from the Bible:

Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
~Ecclesiastes 12:12

So nurture curiosity by asking others what they think about a topic.

3. Be curious in prayer
The third way to practice curiosity is to be curious in prayer. James, Jesus’ brother says:

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.
~James 1:5 NLT

If you don’t know what to think about a topic or if you’ve got questions that you don’t have answers to, then ask God for answers. Or ask God for wisdom to be able to ask the right questions or better questions. Or ask God to give you help in seeking answers or to be able to commit while still having questions.

Over the years of being a student, I’ve compiled a bunch of prayers for study. Here is one of my favorite prayers for praying before you begin studying something:

Most blessed Lord, send the grace of Your Holy Spirit on me to strengthen me that I may learn well the subject I am about to study and by it become a better person for Your glory, the comfort of my family and the benefit of Your Church and our world. Amen

Curious About Our Community – Demographics
So what does it look like when you take this penchant for curiosity and point it out at our community? We as a church have just moved into a new building. This means we’ve been curious about our new neighbors. A couple of weeks ago we hired a demographics expert, Tom Bandy, who helped us learn about our community. What we found out was that there’s a key group we’re reaching that demographers call “Singles and Starters.” Experian, the credit reporting company, describes this in this way: “Young singles starting out, and some starter families, in diverse urban communities.” SCC is currently made up of about 14% “Singles and Starters.” Here’s the really cool thing. The biggest group right around our new building is “Singles and Starters.” They make up almost 28% of the population just around our new church building. Here’s what Tom says about this group:

“These younger singles, single parents, and ‘friends with benefits’ are not just too busy for traditional church. The church is not on their radar screen. It doesn’t easily fit into any part of their lifestyle…at work, play, or background soundtrack. Music may play constantly in their minds, but spirituality may not… For many people in this group, religion is not particularly relevant now, and perhaps not in the foreseeable future, but they are remarkably open to surprise.”
~Tom Bandy

So apparently this is a group that is somewhat hard to reach. They make up the largest group of people that we’re already reaching, and there are twice as many of them right around this building. Wow! Tom Bandy uses these words and phrases to describe this group:

Looking for “Heroes of Faith”, high energy, contagious enthusiasm, online, music soundtrack in the background, progressive, sociable, seeking fulfillment, high drive for affluence, high pursuit of personal growth.
~Tom Bandy

We’re going to continue to be curious about our new neighbors. And we’re going to continue to invite them to be curious with us. We’ll invite them to be curious about the Bible. We’ll invite them to be curious with our community. We’ll invite them to be curious with God in prayer.

Are you ready to be curious?

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible, compassionate, Creative, curious, prayer, Questions

Committed to Christ: Bible Reading

March 17, 2014 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Committed to Christ: Bible Reading
Sycamore Creek Church
March 16/17, 2014
Tom Arthur
Psalm 119

Peace Friends!

books

Let’s face it. The Good Book is hard to read. In fact, it may be the best selling book of all time with enough copies to get us

to the moon and back, but I suspect that many of those copies are setting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. I came across this helpful infographic that shows us the state of things when it comes to books being sold, but I’m skeptical that those 3,900,000,000 Bibles sold have all been read. I read that most families have about four copies of the Bible. I probably have fifty! But I don’t read them all.

When we look at those in the room, there are a lot of different people in the room when it comes to the Bible:

Some are apathetic about it and simply don’t read it.
Some think it’s a dangerous book and stay away from it.
Some think it’s a hard book to understand and not worth the effort and don’t read it.
Some think it’s a hard book to understand and worth the effort and put a lot of time into reading it.
Some think it’s God’s inerrant (without error) and infallible (reliable) word and read it daily.
Some think it’s God’s inerrant (without error) and infallible (reliable) word and rarely read it.
Some think it’s a good spiritual and moral guide and read it occasionally when looking for guidance.
Some don’t know what to think about it but read it daily and encounter God regularly in their reading.

During the month of February we took an anonymous survey to get a lay of the land for how often people in our church read the Bible. Here are the results:

Survey Results: Do you read the Bible?
2 – No, I have never read the Bible.
1 – No, I don’t read the Bible, but I want to with all my heart.
6 – I used to, but I don’t anymore.
32 – Yes, I read the Bible sometimes.
17 – Yes, I read the Bible frequently.
12 – Yes, I read the Bible on a daily basis.

JudyB

My own experience with reading the Bible has been mixed. I remember growing up and walking in on my mom reading the Bible in her prayer chair. It still happens today! She’s never upset that I’m interrupting her reading the Bible. She just looks up with a smile and waits for my question or comment. Once she has satisfied me, she goes back to reading her Bible. This makes me wonder how often my kids will walk in on me reading the Bible. How likely is that to happen in your home? I share this just to let you know that I had a mother who modeled for me the importance of reading the Bible daily, but as a kid I didn’t follow her model.

When I was in third grade I had an incident with a skateboard. In the wisdom of a third grader I decided to skate down a huge hill while wearing my plastic soccer cleats. When the skateboard got going so fast that it wobbled back and forth, I jumped ship. Of course, my plastic cleats had no traction on the asphalt to stop me, but my knee did. I tore my knee up pretty bad, and there was a lot of blood everywhere. I had to walk a mile to get home, bleeding the whole way. When I got home my mom wasn’t there, so I climbed into bed, and prayed a desperate Hail Mary to God, “God, I’ll read the entire Bible if you stop my knee from bleeding.” I picked up my Bible and began reading Genesis, the first book of the Bible. About three chapters in, my mom came home, my knee had stopped bleeding, and I stopped reading the Bible. I didn’t keep that promise then, but I have since read the Bible several times over. in her prayer chair. It still happens today! She’s never upset that I’m interrupting her reading the Bible. She just looks up with a smile and waits for my question or comment. Once she has satisfied me, she goes back to reading her Bible. This makes me wonder how often my kids will walk in on me reading the Bible. How likely is that to happen in your home? I share this just to let you know that I had a mother who modeled for me the importance of reading the Bible daily, but as a kid I didn’t follow her model.

In high school, I was very active in youth group. We were reminded regularly that we should be reading our Bibles daily. I don’t know that I read my Bible daily, but I did pick up the practice of reading a devotional every day, or most days. I don’t know why I picked this particular devotional, but I began reading Our Daily Bread (http://odb.org). Maybe I picked it because they would send it free to your house. They still do that today!

I had grown up with a certain view of the Bible called “inerrancy.” This view of the Bible claimed that the Bible was without error in any way, although it usually admitted that this was in the original “autographs” written by the authors themselves. I wrestled with this view of the Bible considerably while in college. I didn’t wrestle with it so much because I thought there were a lot of glaring errors in significant things, but I wrestled with it because of how this view had been used over the years to create “inerrant” interpretations (like a literal six days of creation) while ignoring that there was any interpretation going on at all.

When I graduated college, got married, moved to Petoskey, and began working at the Petoskey United Methodist Church, I got involved in leading a thirty-four week Bible study called Disciple Bible Study. This study covered most of the Bible from cover to cover. I believe this might have been the first time I made good on my third-grade bargain to God and read the Bible all the way through. But in this reading of the Bible with a small group over a year, I encountered a power in the Bible that I had never encountered before. It was a power to convict and to call. It was during this Bible study that I began to sense my call to be a pastor and where Sarah and I were first convicted to begin to share our house with those who were in need in some way.

060407_ellen davis high res

During my time in Petoskey I eventually let the idea of inerrancy go. I felt it had so many problems that it was no longer tenable. In doing so I became uprooted. If the Bible wasn’t “without error” then how could it be trusted? When I was called to be a pastor and went off to seminary, I was afraid that seminary would completely destroy my view of the Bible and all I would be left with was some old crusty tradition-laden book. Thankfully, that’s not what happened. I went to Duke Divinity School which required all incoming students to take an entire year of Old Testament. I had Ellen Davis as my Old Testament professor. She saved the Bible for me. She showed me another way to look at the Bible besides a book “with errors” a book “without errors.” She showed me that the Bible was a collection of writings where the community of faith had encountered God. The Bible is a story that we can enter and find our place that becomes a faithful guide to life and faith. There is an ongoing discussion among the community of faith about what these stories mean for us today. The Bible is a book that convicts, challenges, and confronts our complacency with the holiness of God. It is a book that comforts us in our brokenness with the compassion of God. And perhaps most surprisingly, it does all of these things in an artful and creative way.

What I’d like to do with the rest of our time today is show you one example of how the Bible teaches us about itself in an artful and creative way. I’d like to do that with the longest chapter in the Bible: Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is 176 verses. It is a love poem about the Bible. But it is no ordinary love poem. It isn’t like someone sat down and just started writing lovey dovey stuff about the Bible and after 176 verses was exhausted. No. Psalm 119 has a unique hidden structure. It’s hidden in the English but it’s obvious in its original language. Psalm 119 is an acrostic with eight verses per letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. So 22 x 8 = 176. This means that the first eight verses all begin with A. The next eight verses all begin with B, and so on. Not only does it have that unique form of an acrostic, but every line has a synonym in it for the Bible. Every line! Now that’s artistic.

So today I’d like to look at the ABGs of the Bible. ABGs? Yes, in Hebrew, there is no C. Hebrew goes Aleph, Beth, and Gimmel. So let’s begin at the beginning.

ABGs of Bible Study – Aleph
The first eight verses of Psalm 119 begin with Aleph. The first verse of Psalm 119 begins with the word “Asher” which means happy, fortunate, or blessed. Here it is:

[Asher] Happy are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord.
~Psalm 119:1

From the first verse of Psalm 119 we learn that if you want to know the way of life that will lead to life, read, study, obey, and love the words of God. Happiness comes in reading, knowing, and walking in the way of the Bible. Those who do so are fortunate and blessed. If you want to be happy, fortunate, and blessed, the Bible will be a significant part of your life.

ABGs of Bible Study – Beth
The second set of eight verses in Psalm 119 all begin with Beth. Verse eleven begins with the word, “Buleve” which means in my heart. Here it is:

[Buleve] In my heart I treasure your word
so that I may not sin against you.
~Psalm 119:11

Reading the Bible isn’t just about rotely following commands and rules out of duty. It’s about shaping and forming your heart, the seat of not only the emotions, but the governing center of the physical, intellectual, and psychological (EDB). Ellen Davis liked to tell us that the best word in English to translate what usually gets translated as “heart” is really “imagination.” So you could read this verse in this way: “In my imagination I treasure your word…” How do you image each day? How do you imagine each situation you find yourself in? Does the word of God make its way into your heart and imagination for all of life? There’s nothing rote about that, but it’s a vibrant thriving way of life that Psalm 119 is describing.

ABGs of Bible Study – Gimmel
The third set of eight verses in Psalm 119 all begin with Gimmel. Verse 18 begins with the word, “Galayne” which means “open my eyes.” Here it is:

[Galayne] Open my eyes, so that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
~Psalm 119:18

Notice that this is a request to God. The psalmist is asking God to open his eyes as he reads. It takes God’s Spirit illuminating the eyes of our heart, shedding light on dark places, so that we can see and understand. We usually think that we must first understand in order to believe, but here we see something different. We believe in order to understand. When our eyes are open we see the wonder of God’s words. Maybe this is why Jesus said let those with eyes to see and ears to hear, see and hear.

So we’ve looked at Aleph, Beth, and Gimmel. When I wrote this sermon originally, I had nineteen more points to get through the whole alephbeth! But it became clear fairly quickly that this was absurd. But I would like to jump ahead to Mem and Nun and give you two more bonus insights into the Bible.

Bonus! – Mem
Quite a ways into Psalm 119 you will find eight verses that all begin with Mem. Verse 103 begins with the word “MaNemlutzu” which means how sweet. Here it is:

[MaNemlutzu] How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
~Psalm 119:103

I find it interesting that the psalmist calls the Bible “sweet.” The Bible is, admittedly, a bit of an acquired taste. It’s like wine or beer. Do you remember the first time you tried one of them? You probably had to gag it down. I still don’t like the taste of beer, but the beer aficionados around me always wax eloquently about this or that sweet taste of beer. They offer me a sip, and I gag it down. I had the same experience when I first tasted wine, but over time I’ve acquired a taste for wine. It took time and perseverance, but now I can’t imagine not liking wine. The more time we spend in the Bible the more that the words become sweet as honey. The Bible grows on us. How much could you be missing out on if you did not give yourself time to acquire a taste for it?

Bonus! Bonus! – Nun
Following eight verses that all begin with Mem you’ll find eight verses that all begin with Nun. Verse 105 begins with the word, “NerLuragne” which means lamp to my feet. Here it is:

[NerLuragne] A lamp to my feet is your word
and a light to my path.
~Psalm 119:105

What the psalmist is telling you is that when you feel like you are in the dark and you don’t know where to go or where to turn, the Bible provides practical guidance for your next step. It may not always cast light on a mile down the road, but the more time you spend in the Bible the more you will know what to do right now. This isn’t always because there’s a verse about what to do for every situation. “Lord, should I buy a new car or a used one?” No. But rather it forms and shapes your character so that you begin to look at the world the way God looks at the world and you begin to see the path forward if just one step at a time.

Reading the Bible
All of this is good and dandy, but it really doesn’t mean much if you don’t actually get in the Bible and read it for yourself. I’d like to spend the rest of our time giving you a couple of tips for reading the Bible daily in a modern world.

First, if you don’t know about the YouVersion app, get on your phone right now and download it. Here’s a brief video that highlights what it does:

Millions of people have downloaded this app and find it helpful for reading, listening to, and watching the Bible.

Another great website I like is www.pray-as-you-go.org. Here you’ll find a bit more contemplative reading plan. Each day, you can download a twelve or thirteen minute MP3 that includes some music, scripture, and questions for reflection. Just listen to it in the car or while you’re exercising. You can even download an entire week at a time. Turn your car into a prayer room. Turn the gym into a temple of prayer. Turn your run or walk into a prayer and Bible reading walk. BINGO! You can pray or read the Bible as you go.

So you don’t like any of those ideas. What about getting daily emails sent to your inbox that include the Bible portions to read? Can you turn your daily email reading into daily Bible reading too? Check out www.biblegateway.com to sign up for an email Bible reading plan.

Want to go deeper? Want to be a Hebrew or Greek scholar even though you don’t know Hebrew or Greek? Then check out www.BlueLetterBible.org. You can easily look up the original languages and go deeper without knowing Greek or Hebrew!

Personally, I still like the old fashioned bound book with a cover and back and pages in between. I am currently using the NRSV Daily Bible to read through the Bible. It splits the Bible into 365 readings and goes from front to back, which is not necessarily the best way to read the Bible, but it works for me. I began in January of 2013, and I’m currently somewhere in the 200s. Moral of the story: if you don’t get through the Bible in 365 consecutive days (aka “a year”) who cares? Your pastor doesn’t either. Just keep reading.

One last way of reading the Bible that I want to share with you is what’s sometimes called “The Classic Bible Reading Plan.” If you divide the number of chapters in the Bible by 365 you’ll get four. So if you read four chapters a day, you’ll get through the Bible in a year. You don’t have to read all four chapters side by side. So here’s the classic way of doing it: read two chapters from the Old Testament, read one chapter from the New Testament, read one Proverb (and when you get to the end of the Proverbs just begin again and repeat the book), and read one Psalm (repeat the Psalms in the same manner that you repeated the Proverbs). Pretty simple. Now all you have to do is do it!

You’ve heard my story about reading the Bible, I want you to hear one more story. Justin Kring was baptized at our church a couple of summers ago and has been reading the Bible through for the first time. Here’s his experience:

I don’t know what level your commitment has been, but I know what level my commitment has been. Today we are all invited to take one step in a new commitment.

Are you ready to climb one or more steps in your Bible reading? Check all that apply.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible, prayer

Unshakeable Truths – The Rock Solid Bible

September 16, 2012 by Tom Leave a Comment

This was a really nice spoken work piece that was created for this new study Bible:

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: Bible, Bible Study

Old Testament, Part II

September 4, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Bible 101 – Old Testament, Part II
Sycamore Creek Church
September 2, 2012
Tom Arthur

Peace Friends!

Today we wrap up a series that was originally supposed to be one week on the Old Testament and one week on the New Testament. But once I began working on trying to give you an overview of the Old Testament, I found that I couldn’t do it in one week. In fact, two weeks is still pushing it. So I’m putting the New Testament off for another day. And what was a Bible 101 series has become an Old Testament 101 series.

I have struggled with the Old Testament. In fact, as I was getting ready to go to seminary I was on the verge of another faith crisis around several questions I had about the Old Testament. I know it’s a little weird to hear someone talk about going to seminary to be a pastor and being on the verge of a faith crisis because of the Old Testament, but I’m just telling you how it was. I thought that my Old Testament class was going to be a serious challenge to my faith, but what I found instead was that my Old Testament professor, Ellen Davis, saved my faith. She didn’t save me (that’s Jesus’ job), but she did renew my faith and trust in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament.

I’m not the only person to struggle with the Old Testament. I hear questions all the time about how to understand the Old Testament. It seems so, well, old. Any anything that is old just smacks of old underwear, old moldy cheese, old fashion, and old technology. Who would want to spend any time with old stuff that is outdated? I’d sum up people’s concerns about the Old Testament in this way:

The Old Testament is hard to understand, scientifically inaccurate, and presents an immoral angry and vengeful God. Given all this, why would I care to spend any time at all in the Old Testament?

These are important questions, and let me speak to the guest for a moment. If you’ve joined us today and have these kinds of questions about the Bible, you’re not alone. We’ve got them too. Hey, I’m the pastor at Sycamore Creek Church, and I’ve still got questions like this. Your questions are welcome. We’re a curious church. We’re curious about God and the Bible. You don’t have to check your questions at the door when you come here. You are welcome, questions and all.

So last week I began to unpack these questions with another question: what does Jesus think of the Old Testament? And because Christians think Jesus is God’s son, we can rephrase the question this way: What does God think of the Old Testament? We get a glimpse of an answer to that question when Jesus is arguing with some of the religious leaders of his day. He says:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.
Matthew 23:23 NRSV

In this argument about tithing, giving ten percent of what you make back to God, Jesus points out that the religious leaders of the day are following the letter of the law so closely that they’re missing some weightier parts. Jesus thinks there are parts of the Old Testament (although he would have simply called it “the scriptures” because there was not yet a compiled New Testament) that carry more weight than others.

I use dumbbells in the morning to exercise. Some are light and some are heavy. They’re all dumbbells but because of their different weights they’re used for different things. Light weights are used in high repetition to build endurance. Heavy weights are used in low repetitions to build strength. They are all useful for training to get stronger, but they are not all used in the same way because some are weightier than others.

So here’s the main point of these two weeks on the Old Testament:

Main Point: All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal.

If that makes you a little nervous to say that, then we can say it exactly the way Jesus would have said it: all scripture is inspired (God breathed), but not all scripture is equally weighty.

The big question then is how do you know which parts are more or less weighty? I think one key to understanding the weightiness of a section is to read slowly, carefully and humbly paying special attention to genre. Genre? Yes. Genre.

You may not know the word but you know genre. Let me explain it this way. Here’s your Bible quiz for the morning. What does “Bible” literally mean? Bible means library. The Bible is a library of sixty-six books and thirty-nine of them are in the Old Testament. A library is like a bookstore, it is arranged with different topics in different sections. Those different sections are the different genres: fiction, cookbooks, biography, gardening, memoir, etc.

When I recently went on vacation I picked up two kinds of books from the library: historical fiction and some cookbooks. You read these kinds of books very differently. I read the fiction for long stretches of time in my bed before I go to sleep. I read the cookbook in short spurts in the kitchen paying very close attention to details. The difference between one teaspoon and one tablespoon can be disastrous. You would think I was weird if I took the cookbook to bed and read it for hours at a time before I went to sleep. There are different kinds of books for different kinds of situations that are read very differently.

Another kind of reading I do is magazine reading. Where do you read magazines? I prefer to read magazines while sitting on the throne in the throne room of my house, if you know what I mean. So you even read some kinds of books or reading material on the toilet. What do you read on the toilet?

So there are three big sections of the Old Testament:

1. Story of Israel (Pentateuch/Torah & History)
2. Wisdom (Emotions & Wisdom)
3. Prophets (Major & Minor)

Last week we looked at the first big section: the Story of Israel. We saw that this section is made up of books that tell the stories that define who the family of Israelis and is not (Israelliterally means “those who wrestle with God”). Today we’ll look at the other two big sections of the Old Testament: wisdom and prophets.

Wisdom
Within the wisdom books I’d suggest that there are two big sections: wisdom “proper” and emotion books. That may not be quite right, but that’s what I’m going with today. The wisdom “proper” books include Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. The emotion books include Psalms, Song of Songs, and Lamentations.

Before we get much further let’s talk about a definition of wisdom. Wisdom is what is true for most people most of the time. Wisdom is practical common sense knowledge. Wisdom is not a promise. Take for example this very popular proverb about parenting:

Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.
Proverbs 22:6

Many parents get very confused and end up feeling very guilty because they take this as a promise from God. It’s as if God is saying to each parent: if you do the right things, you can rest assured that your child will grow up and do the right things.

Now of course, that is what Sarah and I are planning. We are being perfect parents so that Micah will be a perfect child and later a perfect adult. We read the Bible religiously and do all that it says in regard to parenting. We add to biblical knowledge all the contemporary parenting books. We will make no mistakes. So far in about two years of Micah’s life, we’re doing pretty good. We’re raising him in the right way, and we expect it to pay dividends. When he is an adult, we look forward to kicking back, enjoying his lucrative career and having him take care of us in our old age. All the while we expect that he will be a model Christian completely and totally holy without sin always doing exactly what God would want. Proverbs 22:6 is a promise to this end. Right? NO!

It’s not a promise because it’s wisdom literature. It tells you what happens most of the time for most people. But to think that it’s a formula for 100% success in raising children completely and totally neglects the reality of free will. God has given us the wonderful and terrible freedom of choosing or rejecting God’s love. Children are given this freedom just like the rest of us. Hey wait. We were all once children!

OK, the point of that was to say that if you’re not paying attention to the genre of wisdom, you’re going to miss something really important about how to read the proverbs. You’ll be sitting in bed with your cookbook reading it for hours. All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.

Emotions
Then there’s the emotional wisdom books of the Bible: Psalms, Song of Songs, and Lamentations. Often in these books we learn more about the emotions of the person writing the book than we do about God who it is written to or about. Consider some of the psalms that we often have a difficult time with: the cursing psalms.

One of the worst cursing psalms is Psalm 137. It is written during the time of exile in Babylon. Remember from last week the big historical timeline ofIsrael? They began in Egypt as slaves and were delivered by God through Moses. They entered the promised land and were ruled first by judges and then by kings. There was civil war that split Israel in half. The Assyrian empire sacked the northern kingdom of Israel and then the Babylonian empire sacked the southern kingdom of Israel, calledJudah. It was in this sacking that the temple was destroyed. In both instances the attacking empire took the wealthy and elite away from their homeland and into exile.

Imagine with me for a moment the devastation of having your city sacked and then being carted off into exile in a foreign land. Imagine this happening today to us. Psalm 137 is written by a worship leader so let’s imagine this happening to our worship leader, Jeremy. Jeremy’s pregnant wife has been killed in the siege. The foreigners have also killed his son. Then they’ve carted him off to their homeland away from everything that is familiar to him. When they get there they rub salt in the open wounds by asking him to sing one of those praise songs that he used to sing at SycamoreCreekChurch. He says, Sure. I’ll sing you a praise song. You’ve killed my wife, my unborn child, and my two-year-old:

Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!
Psalm 137:9

Now in that context, are you learning more about God or more about Jeremy? When you are reading the books of emotion, be careful to make that distinction. All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.

Prophets (Major & Minor)
Last week we looked at the books that tell the story of Israel and today we’ve looked at the wisdom books. There’s only one more section: the prophets. Within the prophets there are major prophets and minor prophets. What’s the difference between a major and minor prophet? It’s not the key he sings in. (That was a joke.) It’s simply the length of the book he wrote. The major prophets were more wordy than the minor prophets.

The Major Prophets are: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel & Daniel (Apocalypse).

The Minor Prophets are: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

A prophet is generally someone who speaks for God who reminds the family of God when it is living into God’s story and when it is not living into God’s story. There are several ways that the prophets go about doing this. One way is through apocalyptic literature. Apocalypse simply means “revelation.”

Large portions of Ezekiel and Daniel are apocalyptic. Here’s a taste:

In the middle of it was something like four living creatures. This was their appearance: they were of human form. Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings…As for the appearance of their faces: the four had the face of a human being, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle.
Ezekiel 1:5-12 NRSV

I think one of the most helpful ways to understand apocalypse is as an ancient political cartoon. If you saw a political cartoon today that had a donkey and an elephant in it you’d know immediately that we’re talking about the democrats and republicans. If the cartoon has the colors red, white, and blue in it, then you know we’re talking about the USA. In the same way, apocalyptic literature uses symbols that everyone in its day understood but today we’ve lost the meaning because we aren’t in that culture. So it takes some extra work to unpack the symbolism of apocalypse.

Another way that prophets speak for God is through “sign acts” or what I like to call “performance art.” In the performance art of the prophets we get a taste of what God’s emotions are like. Hosea was called by God to marry an unfaithful wife to symbolize Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Whew! Here’s another somewhat startling performance art act by the prophet Isaiah:

At that time the LORD had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia…”
Isaiah 20:2-3 NRSV

Isaiah walked around butt-naked for three years to make a point about God! Teenagers, tell your parents next week when you come to church that you’d like to go naked and barefoot to make a point about God. See what happens.

I like to think of the prophets as ancient hippies. In fact, this November we’re going to be doing a series called Ancient Hippies looking at four of the prophets: Micah, Amos, Hosea, and Jonah. Within the words and performance of these ancient hippies we see within God a deep passion and love for you that sometimes looks like the passion of a middle school girl for Justin Bieber. It makes God do some crazy stuff. Maybe that’s why we at Sycamore Creek Church talk about igniting authentic life in Christ. But we not only ignite it, we fan it into an all consuming passion for God.

A third way that the prophets remind God’s family who they are and are not is through proclamations of justice. My wife and I named our son Micah because of a famous verse in the book by the prophet Micah about justice:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8 NRSV

It is our hope that he would grow up to be one who does justice, loves kindness, and walks humbly with God. That’s why we named him Micah. And now we are back full circle to what Jesus thinks of the Old Testament and what is weighty and what is not so weighty. Let’s read that argument again that Jesus was having with the religious leaders:

What are the weightier matters of the law? Justice. Mercy. Faith. If you want to know what to pay special attention to in the Old Testament look for the moments of justice, mercy, and faith. All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.

Practical Suggestions
So here are some really practical suggestions for how to do that:

Read together – Read with other people and don’t forget the people who have come before you. Read what other Christians have thought historically. Also, don’t forget to read with people who are different than you. Sometimes you’ll be blind to something obvious that someone from another culture or ethnicity will notice.
Pray a psalm a day – The psalms are emotion filled prayers. Pray one each morning. There are 150 of them. So it will take you roughly five months to work your way through them. Over time you will find that the psalms provide you words to pray when you don’t have your own words.
Read a proverb a day – The proverbs are full of practical wisdom for living today. Read one proverb a day. I have an app on my phone that displays one proverb each day.
Read with a good Bible dictionary – If I had to pick one book besides the Bible to help me read the Bible it would be a good Bible dictionary. My favorite is Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary. When you’re reading a book of the Bible, look that book up and read the brief entry about the context and themes of that book. When you come across the name of a place or person, look that up in the dictionary and learn more about that person or place. It will help you know whether that part of the Bible is weighty or not.
Read with a good atlas – My favorite is Baker’s Atlas of Christian History. In the Bible you’re reading about a foreign land. It is helpful to see a map and know where you’re reading about. Is it happening in the dessert, on a mountain, or on the coastlands? These will give you clues to deeper meanings.
Read with a good handbook – Lastly, pick up a Bible handbook. My favorite is How to Read the Bible Book by Book. You’ll find a chapter on each book of the Bible with helpful guides for what to look for as you’re reading it. Another helpful guidebook is Philip Yancey’s The Bible Jesus Read. Yancey unpacks much of what I’ve said in his characteristically deep and meaningful way.

Here’s the problem we’ve been wrestling with today:

The Old Testament is hard to understand, scientifically inaccurate, and presents an immoral angry and vengeful God. Given all this, why would I care to spend any time at all in the Old Testament?

Here’s one answer to that problem:

Where did Martin Luther King Jr. get his inspiration for his I Have a Dream speech? The Old Testament:

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah 40:4-5 KJV

All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.

Prayer
God, sometimes the Old Testament seems very difficult to read. Help us pay attention to which parts are weightier than others. Help us read slowly, carefully, and humbly while paying special attention to the kind of genre we’re reading. Help us meet you in the pages of the Old Testament so that our lives are transformed into ones that seek justice, mercy, and faith. Then use us to transform the world. Amen.

Each week we provide discussion questions for small groups that meet regularly to discuss the message for the week. Want to find a small group to join? Email Mark Aupperlee – m_aupperlee@hotmail.com.

What do you like or not like about reading the Old Testament?
What is your favorite or least favorite story from the Old Testament and why?
Read Matthew 23:23. What do you make of Jesus’ statement that some parts of the Law/Old Testament are “weightier” than others?
What resources (books, apps, websites, etc.) have you found helpful for reading the Old Testament or Bible?
How can we pray for you in your discipline of reading the Bible?

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible, Faith, Old Testament, scripture

The Old Testament, Part I

August 28, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Bible 101 – The Old Testament Part I
Sycamore Creek Church
August 26, 2012
Tom Arthur
Matthew 23:23

Peace, Friends!

Anything called “old” must not be very good. Right? Well today we begin a Bible 101 series on the “Old” Testament. The Bible is split into two big sections: Old and New. The Old Testament happens before Jesus. The New Testament happens after Jesus.

I’ve got to admit: I’ve struggled with the Old Testament. When I went to seminary I had several unanswered questions about faith and the Bible. I even anticipated having a big faith crisis when I began to really dig down and study the Bible, especially the Old Testament. I had grown up being taught that the Bible was “inerrant.” That means that it was “without error.” I was told that if the was ever an error in any part of the Bible, then all the rest of the Bible was suspect. And it seemed to me that if you were going to find an error in the Bible, it was going to be in the Old Testament. Of course, “error” always ends up equaling someone’s very literal interpretation of some passage here or there. But the struggle with this idea and with the Old Testament almost cost me my faith.

But then I had a surprise: I expected my Old Testament class in seminary to seriously challenge and test my faith. Rather what I found was that Ellen Davis, my Old Testament professor, saved my faith. She didn’t save me (Jesus did that), but she did save my faith. Or maybe not exactly my faith but my faith and trust in the Bible.

Today I’d like to take on an almost impossible task. I’d like to give you an overview of the Old Testament, thousands of pages, in thirty minutes. Actually, I originally intended this series to be two weeks, one week on the Old Testament and one on the New Testament. But after wrestling with this task of teaching the Old Testament probably as much as I’ve wrestled with the actual Old Testament itself, I’ve decided to make it two weeks on the Old Testament and save the New Testament for some other time.

I have a fear about this message: that it will be a little too “professorial.” I’ll do my best to not get too “teachy” but bear with me and I think you’ll gain a deeper appreciation of the Old Testament when we’re done and some helpful guidance for how to make use of it in your life.

I’m not the only one who has struggled with the Old Testament. I asked my friends on Facebook about their own struggles with the Old Testament. Here’s some of what I heard:

I have a difficult time relating it directly to my life.
It’s SO negative and punitive. It depresses me to read it.
The fact that god is needy, insecure, vindictive and overly punitive.
Not understanding all the customs and circumstances of the age.
It’s longer than the New Testament.
Sometimes the repetition from one book to the next makes me less enthusiastic to continue reading. And sometimes I feel like I don’t want to read the OT because of all the repetition. Then there’s the repetition.

Here’s the problem: The Old Testament is hard to understand, scientifically inaccurate, and presents an immoral, angry and vengeful God. Given all this, why would I care to spend any time at all in the Old Testament?

If you’re a guest here today, I want you to know that these kinds of questions really are live here atSycamoreCreekChurch. We’re a curious community. We’ve got questions about God, the Bible, and especially the Old Testament. We want to invite you to be curious about God with us. Your questions are welcome right alongside our own questions.

Jesus’ View of the Old Testament

So what to do with the Old Testament? Let’s begin our exploration today with Jesus’ view of the Old Testament. What does Jesus think of the Old Testament? Since Christians believe that Jesus was not only fully human but also fully divine, we could rephrase the question this way: What does God think of the Old Testament?

I’d like to focus on one verse today to help us answer that question:

So Jesus is arguing with the religious leaders of the day and calls them out for being hypocrites. They follow to the letter the laws about tithing. They take this so seriously that they tithe their herbs and spices! Anybody here tithe? Anybody here tithe their herbs and spices?

So Jesus lays into them. What does he say, “You neglect the weightier matters of the law.” Implied in this critique of the religious leaders of the day is a view of the Old Testament: some things in it are weightier than other things. In other words, they’re not all equal. It’s like the rubber bands and dumbbells I use for exercising in the morning. They all help me exercise but some are weightier than others.

So you may wonder: “Is this just Jesus’ view in the New Testament? But what does the Old Testament think of itself?” Well, there’s actually quite a conversation within the Old Testament about what exactly is really important in the Old Testament. Consider Psalm 51 as it reflects on all the various commandments and details about offering sacrifices at the temple to God, a major part of some of the books in the Old Testament. Psalm 51 says:

For you [God] have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:16-17 NRSV

So one part of the Old Testament tells us that God doesn’t take delight in sacrifices while another part tells us all the details of how to offer sacrifices. What’s up with that?

Here’s the main point of today’s message, the one point take-away: All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal. Or you might say, “All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is of equal weight.” But how do we know which parts of scripture are more weighty than others? One key to that is to read slowly, carefully, and humbly paying extra attention to genre.

Genre?

What is “genre”? You already know it. What’s your favorite mystery novel? How about romance? Fantasy? Biography? Memoir? Graphic Novel? Self-help? Politics? Cookbook? They’re all books, but they’re not all the same kind of books. If you pick up a cookbook and you’re expecting to read a romance novel, you’ll be seriously confused and disappointed. You don’t even read those books the same way. You read a romance sitting in bed over long stretches of time before you go to bed. You read a cookbook little bits at a time in your kitchen.

Here’s your Bible quiz for the day: What does “Bible” mean? “Bible” literally means library. The Bible is a library of sixty six books. I’ve got this really cool version of the Bible that shows that really well. It’s a boxed set where each book of the Bible is individually bound. There are thirty nine books of the Bible that are written by dozens of authors over thousands of years. Just like you read a cookbook differently than you read a romance novel, you can’t bring the same expectations to each book of the Bible, or even different parts within the same book. All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal.

There are three big parts to the Old Testament:

The Story ofIsrael
Wisdom Literature (sometimes called “The Writings”)
The Prophets.

Let’s look at each part one at a time.

1. Story of Israel

The first big part of the Old Testament is the Story of Israel. These are the family stories you tell and retell that define who your family is and is not. For example, my family likes to tell the story of my Grandpa White who was being served pie by my grandma. She served up a piece of pie and before she could turn back and dish out some ice cream, he had eaten the entire piece of pie! That tells you something about my family. It tells you something about my family especially when you compare it to a more recent story that Sarah’s family likes to tell about me and them. The first time that Sarah’s family served me s’mores, her mom put all the ingredients out on the table: marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate. After her dad had roasted one marshmallow for each of us, Sarah’s mom began putting everything away. I protested: you can’t call them s’mores if you only get one! These are stories that we tell and retell over and over. What stories does your family tell and retell about themselves? How does the telling and retelling of those stories define who your family is?

The first big part of the Old Testament is the Story of Israel. Within the Story of Israel are two more big parts: the first part is the Pentateuch often called the Torah and the second part is the History. Pentateuch means “five books” and Torah means “teaching.” The five books of the Torah are Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Genesis has two big parts: the pre-history and the story of the matriarchs and patriarchs. The pre-history sometimes reads like it was taken out of the Lord of the Rings. For example:

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
Genesis 6:4 NRSV

Did everything written in the pre-history happen exactly as it is written? Some of it I think should be read metaphorically like the story of creation in six days. Other parts of it, I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But nonetheless, these stories define who the family ofIsraelis, and consequently who we are.

Exodus is the story of the, well, Exodus. Numbers is the story of the number of people who traveled through the wilderness fromEgyptto the Promised Land. Numbers is one of those books we love to hate because it just has one list of people after another. We don’t know how to pronounce their names and we really don’t care. But here’s a trick, just read the names with authority. Nobody else knows how to pronounce them either. Let’s practice:

From Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur. From Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. From Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab. From Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar. From Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon. From the sons of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur. From Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni. From Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai. From Asher, Pagiel son of Ochran. From Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel. From Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.
Numbers 1:5-15 NRSV

I used to not get these lists of names. But then I went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall inWashingtonDC. I was overwhelmed with emotion. I cried as I read through the list of one name after another on this amazing memorial. I cried at a list of names! Do I want to stand at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial every day and read all those names every day? Probably not. But I did gain an appreciation for the power of writing down and reading names. Or take the one-year anniversary of 9-11. Do you remember what they did at ground zero? They read each of the three thousand names who died. It took a very long time. But it was powerful to listen to and remember all those names of people. That’s what the book of Numbers is about.

Another book we love to hate is Leviticus. Countless jokes are made about Leviticus. It is a book of law, many of which seem completely irrelevant to us. But not all laws are made equally. There are ceremonial laws, ethical laws, and civil laws. Buried within this book are amazing gems. Do you know what the second greatest commandment is according to Jesus? Do you know where Jesus got that from? The book of Leviticus:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Leviticus 19:18 NRSV

“Deuteronomy” literally means “second law.” Once again we’re in the law. Irrelevant? Do you know what the greatest commandment is according to Jesus? Do you know where Jesus got that commandment from? Deuteronomy.

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:5 NRSV

That’s the Pentateuch or Torah. That’s the first part of the Story of Israel. The second part of the Story of Israel is the history. Here’s how the history of Israel works:

There are several books that describe what life was like before there were kings that ruledIsrael: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel

There is much in these books that is disturbing. But when we read books of history, we need to remember that often times what we’re reading is simply reporting what happened without a lot of commentary on whether it was wrong or right. But one big piece of commentary we get from the book of Judges is this:

In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.
Judges 17:6 NRSV

One of the big stories that rubs people the wrong way is Lot offering his daughters to be gang raped by a mob. When you read this story, you must keep in mind that there is nothing in the story that says that God toldLotto do this. What you read is simply a report of what happened.

But that doesn’t totally get us off the hook in these difficult moments. We read in Samuel:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I will punish the Amalekites for what they did in opposing the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
1 Samuel 15:2-3 NRSV

YIKES! If you’ve got questions about stuff like this, well, you’re in good company. I’ve got questions too. When I come to sections like this it is helpful to remember that there are other parts of the Old Testament that tell a very different story. Consider this passage from Micah:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Micah 4:3 NRSV

The Old Testament can be very bloody, but it also almost always points to, even longs for, a day when war will be a thing of the past. All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal.

Moving on in the books of history there are several books that describe what life was like after kings took power in Israel: 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles. Here’s where much of the repetition comes from. The books of Kings was written by one group of people. The books of Chronicles tells the exact same story by another group of people. Some parts of these books are identical.

So during the king part of the Story of Israel there is a civil war and Israel is split into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. This civil war weakened Israel and Judah and soon the empires of Assyria and Babylon came and sacked these two kingdoms and took the people of Israel off to Exile. One book that tells what it was like to live in Exile is Esther.

Soon another even bigger Empire,Persia, takes down Assyria andBabylonand allowsIsraelto return to their land. Two books tell this story – Ezra & Nehemiah.

So we’ve covered the first big part of the Old Testament: the Story of Israel. There are two big parts left to go, but you’re going to have to come back next week to learn about those.

All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal. When we really take this point into account we will read slowly, carefully, and humbly with special attention to genre of what we’re reading. I think that this kind of reading takes a lot of work. It doesn’t come easily. Next week we’re going to look at some practical strategies for how to do this kind of work.

When we read the Old Testament in this way it transforms our life and the lives of those around us. Lately I’ve been on a community learning tour. I’ve been visiting various places in our community and this past week I met our county sheriff, Sherriff Wrigglesworth. One of his deputies, Steve Martin (not the comedian) gave me a tour of the jail. Steve retires in about two weeks. He’s a seasoned policeman. As Steve walked me around showing me all the ins and outs (it was serious maze!), he told me about how he treats the prisoners: with respect. He said that he doesn’t yell at them or curse at them. If he has to speak words of discipline to an inmate, he takes him aside away from his buddies so as not to shame him in front of others. He told me how some of the younger deputies don’t treat the prisoners in this way and how they often end up having to resolve issues physically. After Steve told me this, I said to him, “I don’t know your faith history, but I’d say you’re treating the prisoners with a basic biblical dignity.” He went on to tell me that he was a Christian and that while many of these inmates have done some pretty heinous stuff, they are worthy of being treated with respect as humans because they each bear the image of God. Where do you think he got that idea from? The Old Testament.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible, Faith, Old Testament, scripture

Bible 101

August 21, 2012 by Tom Leave a Comment

The Bible is hard to understand, scientifically inaccurate, and presents an immoral angry and vengeful God. Why would I care to spend any time in the Bible at all? Or is it? Join us as we spend two weeks looking at the Bible and answering three questions: What’s in it? Why trust it? How do I use it?

August 26 – Old Testament
September 2 – New Testament

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible

Bible – Written by Humans or God?

March 17, 2012 by Tom Leave a Comment

The process of canonization

I’ve recently come across this youth curriculum that has some pretty amazing and funny videos about theological issues. Here’s one that most everyone asks: Who wrote the Bible? God or humans?

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: Bible

Bible Reading Plans

January 4, 2012 by Tom Leave a Comment

Looking for a plan for reading the Bible in 2012. Here are several great options I’ve recently found.

Crosswalk.com
There are several customizable options for reading the Bible found at Crosswalk.com. Read it in chronological order, classically (OT, Psalms, NT), etc. Pick one of several translations. I like Crosswalk especially because they have the NRSV online, my personal favorite translation, which is not available very many places online. Crosswalk.com also has a host of other resources and devotionals for people from all walks of life.

You Version
I really don’t like the name of this website (it makes it sound like the Bible is all about you when it’s really all about God), but the tools available on this website are amazing. Pick from a huge list of different Bible reading plans including many topical Bible reading plans (Christmas, Abraham, Prayers of Jesus, Relationships, etc.). Then there’s the smart phone app that you can download and track the whole thing right in the palm of your hand. When I downloaded this app for my Android phone, it had over 10,000,000 downloads!

NRSV Daily Bible
This is a great cover to cover reading-plan-Bible. You read about four to five chapters a day. With each day’s reading you’ll find a theme verse, a reading from some other author, a set of questions for reflection, and a prayer. Just pick up this Bible and let it guide you from the beginning of the Bible to the end. The up side of this is that its easy, simple, and very intuitive. The down side is that the Bible isn’t always best read cover to cover. It is probably better to split it up in different ways. But this Bible will appeal to many.

Pray As You Go
If you would really like to read through the Bible but can’t find any time to do so, this website gives you daily MP3 downloads that include some music, Bible readings, and questions for reflection. Just listen each day as you’re driving to work! This is put out by the Jesuits, a Catholic monastic group, so the Bible readings include the Apocrypha, a set of books that Protestants hold as inspirational but not authoritative.

Between these options, you should have more than enough guidance for reading your Bible regularly this year.

Filed Under: Ponderings Tagged With: Bible, Bible Study

Scripture

The Wise Way to Live

Curious

Committed to Christ: Bible Reading

Unshakeable Truths – The Rock Solid Bible

Old Testament, Part II

The Old Testament, Part I

Bible 101

Bible – Written by Humans or God?

Bible Reading Plans

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